


Enter! The Kamen Rider!

by Gold_Is_Writing



Series: Reaper High stuffs [1]
Category: Powerpuff Girls, Reaper High, Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Just look up Reaper high it's worth it, OC protag, crossover AU, origin story (kind of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22820659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gold_Is_Writing/pseuds/Gold_Is_Writing
Summary: Every school has it's stories, and every student has something they're remembered for. Reaper High and it's students are no exceptions. And this is one of the tables they tell. This is the story of the worst first day.
Relationships: Jack Spicer/Blossom Utonium
Series: Reaper High stuffs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640530
Kudos: 2





	Enter! The Kamen Rider!

**Author's Note:**

> Reaper High was originally made by @Croxovergoddess on Tumblr. Go check her out, she deserves all the love for this crossover AU!

A  _ crash _ , a  _ bang _ , and the sound of  _ crunching _ metal echoed up through the concrete stairwell. Monstrous and emotionless humanoid robots formed a scattered line up the stairs. They were climbing to the roof of a 27-story office building and having a ball of a time doing it. Leading the charge was another robot, different from the rest, it was altered with monkey-like accessories, such as brown highlights, a helmet to mimic an apes head shape and ears, as well as a tail made up of visible hinge joints.

The robots were chanting, “Objective: destroy all humans,” like it was some kind of disorganized rallying cheer. The monkey robot at the top cheered with them, but gave out “eeks” and “ooks” at each syllable instead of words.

And just as the grew rounded the stairs between the 24th and 25th floors, a man burst out through the door behind them.

“Now I’ve found you!” he cried, pointing a black-armoured finger at the augmented robot. He had a boyish voice and stood at an average height, around 170 cm. His armour was messy, parts of it looked like scrap metal, shin and forearm plating was literally strapped to his body, that major color present was black, with yellow pieces of armour acting as accents. The mask of his suit was hexagonal and the same honey colored yellow as on the rest of his body, the eye pieces of his suit were a deep purple, and there were two horns horns spreading from the sides of his head that ended each on a curve.

All the robots turned to him and the leader went into a frenzy of shrieks. It jumped onto the railing, hopping, and pointing, and bouncing. It was going bananas.

It screeched and pointed at a few of the robots at the end of the group, motioning for them to attack their pursuer. They swiftly obeyed, nodding before jumping down to attack the armored man.

“Don’t think you can get away from me!” the man grunted out as the group got away from him.

The two stragglers had landed on top of him and they all fell to the ground in a dog pile. The man rolled them over, kicking one of the machines down the adjacent stairs towards the 24th floor. The other machine had kept it’s grip and was attempting to violently shake the armoured man.

In response, he forced his hand around the machine’s throat and attempted to push it off of him. But when it hardly budged, he opted for a different plan. Reaching down to the belt around his waist, he cranked the shoddy looking lever to his right, then swiftly shoved it back and to the left.

The first crank caused a crushing sound and techno standby music to start and then second set off a loud crunching sound, followed by the buckle sounding off, “ _ Sparking! Dystopia Finish! _ ”

And with that a ball of light, sparking with energy, formed around the man’s hand. He pulled back his fist before punching it right through the machine. After that the light faded, and he was able to push the machine off.

The second robot had recovered, and was making an advance up the stairs. So the man looked between the two machines, nodded to himself, and through the one he’d defeated down the stairs before beginning his pursuit of the rest of the group.

Two more robots were sent flying down between the steps. Crashing and banging against the rails at random intervals. Then another two followed soon after. Minutes later, the monkey bot and the last 3 of it’s lackeys burst through the door to the roof together.

The monkey bounced and exploded with eeks and shrieks of pride, but the 3 with it looked around the roof. What, or in this case who, they had been searching for was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s  _ ICE _ to see you all here!” a voice called out before one of the robot farthest from the group was shrouded in a white mist.

There was a loud and almost painful sounding laugh that quickly turned into coughing. Then 3 shots rang out from a blaster that glowed through the mist before something big cracked and burst.

“Don’t make jokes during a mission!” a gruff voice barked.

Then the mist cleared, and where once there was a single machine, now there were two new armored men standing atop a pile of ice and scrap metal.

The one to the right had a thick and heavy armor on his torso, decorated to look like a blue polar bear, the breast plates and shoulders were made of a blue transparent material revealing pieces of green armor beneath. He had a belt around his waist that was black, had a silver arrow pointing to his left, and in it’s center was a small, blue, styled looking side profile of a bear.

The one to the left had an armor that was half a blue wolf with red stripes around the face to look like fur, and half a plain machine, not unlike the ones they were fighting. He held a blue cartoonishly shaped gun which, near the tip of the barrell, had a stylized side view of a wolf.

The man in the bear armor stepped forward, “Sorry for you guys, the head banker you’re looking for has lost  _ interest _ in you!”

His partner loudly and painfully coughed to avoid letting his laughter out. He pulled himself back together and lifted his weapon to their opponents.

“You’ll all be scrap metal soon!” he yelled before rushing towards the three, rapidly firing at the group.

With a nod, the man in the bear armour took a hop and ran towards one of the weaker robots. When he was close enough, he jumped at the robot and brought it to its knees before pelting it with slashes from hiw blue metal claws. The robot couldn’t force it’s way out from under him and though it tried to return the attacks, it was eventually torn apart.

The other two robots had teamed up against the one in the wolf armor. The monkey-bot was hopping around, weaving through, and avoiding all of his attacks, and taking every chance it could to scratch at the man. The other robot was having a worse time. As it tried to grab at the man, he managed to kick it away from him. Holding his gun up in front of him, he pushed a button on it’s back.

A light on the side of the gun began to flash blue, and energy began to build up at the gun’s barrel, “ _ Bullet! Shooting, Blast! _ ” it cried when the man pulled the trigger, firing off the large blast of energy. As the energy made contact with the robot, it cut it’s way right through and left a gaping hole in the machine before it fell back in defeat.

“Alright,” the man in the bear armour said, pulling out a small black and green rectangle with an image of grasshopper on it. Above the grasshopper it was labelled “RISING HOPPER ABILITY: JUMP.”

“It’s time for the fi-” before he could finish, the man from before burst through the door to the roof and charged at the monkey-bot.

He eyed the RISING HOPPER item as he made his approach. And once he was close enough, he snatched it out of the man in the bear armour’s hand.

“I’ll be taking that, Zero-One! Now get out of my way!” he threw the two aside and continued to barrell towards the monkey robot, “And this one is mine, too!”

He tackled the monkey machine. The combination of the man’s speed and how caught off guard the machine the two were sent flying over the roof.

Zero-One and the man in the wolf armor rushed to the edge of the building and looked down to the street below, but the two had disappeared. They were nowhere in sight. The two looked around, confused.

Something behind them made a  _ vworp _ sound, followed by the sound of plastic landing on the roof.

The two looked back.

“Progrise keys?” Zero-One mumured walking up to them.

He leaned down and picked up the two progrise keys. One was the RISING HOPPER key that had just been stolen, while the other was labelled “SPARKING GIRAFFE ABILITY: ELECTRIC”.

The two armoured men looked between each other, an air of confusion forming in the air.

* * *

He was falling. All around him there was a feeling of nothingness, emptiness, the only indication he was even falling was the air rushing by him.

The boy woke up. His blonde hair flowed messily through the empty air, the only thing keeping it together was the hair band that tightly wrapped it into a ponytail. He wore a grey hooded brown jacket that he left unzipped, a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and tall brown boots. And he had a belt on over his clothes, it’s strap was a metallic gray and the buckle was a black, yellow, and silver contraption with a lever on it’s top.

He blinked hard, trying to gain his bearings. His surroundings were… empty. Every now and then there were flashes of purples and blues that sped by, but nothing solid.

What was up? What was down?

_ To hell with that, _ the boy thought. And so he looked forward.

Ahead of him, in the direction it felt like he was going, was a hole. It was small, but getting bigger as he approached. Whatever was inside that hole was bright, and he needed something, anything other than what was going on around him.

There was something else in this space. The light feeding in was bouncing and reflecting off of it.

The boy squinted at it, trying to force its shape to be legible. It was moving, shaking… twisting? Whatever it was doing, it kept trying to fling itself into the hole. It would periodically fling every one of it’s limbs forward, before throwing all 5 back like it could just swim through the air.

5 limbs…

“Waitaminute.” the boy said. He twisted his body around, shitfing himself so his legs were pointed down towards the hole and the other creature. He reached down and cranked the lever on the belt one way and then back and shifted his posture into a flying kick pose, “Haaaah!”

The monkey bot looked back from its attempts to not die and noticed the boy behind him. It began shrieking and flinging itself faster and faster, trying to get through the hole.

And in seconds the two flew through the hole. The monkey crashed down loudly and ungracefully and caused the dirt to go flying up on impact. When the boy missed his target he prepared to hit the floor, and in a swift move rolled forward on impact to distribute the force.

The boy was hit with a rush of senses. The grass beneath, the pain from the impact, light poured around him, and there were the loud sounds of human life. He laid there, hunched over unfamiliar ground, not daring to look up and face the light that felt like it could blind him right now, and listened. He listened to the murmurs that had started around him.

“What’s happening?”

“Is that a new student?”

“Where’s Brawl Hall when you need ‘em?”

“Is he okay?”

“Is this some kind of stunt?”

There was a feeling now, too. A presence of someone drawing near and a shadow that loomed in front of the light. Then a light pressure fell on the boy’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Her voice was light and girlish, but also had a hint of repressed sternness to make way for comfort.

The boy slowly raised his head. It took his vision a moment to adjust to the light, but he could make out her face, leaned over in front of him. She had long orange hair with a small red bow in the back, a soft smile, and curious pink eyes.

The boy stayed there, gawking at her.

“Hey, are you… you in there?” she asked, pulling back her hand and waving it in front of his face.

He jumped bock and fell on his behind in surprise. That -was not a hand.  _ That _ was a nub where a hand should be. Not even, like, the remains of an amputees wrist, it was just soft, and round, and  _ there _ .

“No-no hand,” the boy mumbled. He’d finally gotten some grip on reality as it’d become.

The girl stood up. “Yep, he’s fine.” she said with and unimpressed dryness.

“Hey, Blossom, he good?!” another voice called from across the… field? Park? Where was here?

The girl, Blossom, apparently, nodded, “Mm, he’s breathing and probably okay!”

“Cool! Because this guy…” the speaker was a gray-skinned boy with red fiery hair and markings under his eye, “Ain’t moving.”

“Let me see that, Jack.”

The gray boy, Jack, nodded and nudged the body in front of him, “‘Kay, Bloss.”

Blossom sighed and walked over to Jack and - that’s the monkey-bot.

The boy jumped to his feet, “Wait, get away from that thing!”

The two turned to him. “He speaks,” Jack murmured.

“What? You don’t have anything to worry about, I-”

WHAM! Blossom was hit from behind, and sent flying over the crowd and behind the boy. There were “oohs” “aahhs” and the occasional loud and concerned “UUM.” Behind where she once stood the monkey-bot was there, hunched over not having moved since it jumped up to launch the girl.

It was steaming and sizzling, the occasional click, whirr, and crunch of misplaced and broken parts were the only indication it was still in any functioning order. Jack stood behind it, unfazed by what had just happened, but elated at the sight of the robotic monkey in front of him.

“Get away from it, you don’t know what it can do!” the boy shouted.

“Get away? I have been dropped a golden opportunity and you want me to- huURK-” Before Jack could finish the robot had thrown it’s tail out and latched it around his throat.

_ Idiot _ , the boy thought. He leaned down and dashed at the machine, leaping at while going for a right hook at it’s face.

His fist made impact and a loud clang rang out across the space. Pain seeped into the boys hand, surprising him. The boy pulled back, cradling his fist and looking down at himself in shock.

“My- my armor, shit,” he hissed and looked down to his buckle.

The monkey-bot’s head turned towards the boy, clicking. It’s voice box struggled to produce, “O-o-o-obejjectiiive: De-de-destrrrry aaalll humans.”

“Oh,” Jack squeaked out, “That’s why I was -hurk- supposed to get away.”

The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a Progrise key. The feeling of relief he experienced from having it was immediately washed over by the anxiety of looking at it’s cover. It was blank. No animal, no ability, just a gray slab of plastic. He held it out in front of him and pushed the button.

Nothing happened.

The crowd started to back up. They were starting to worry, get scared., There were murmurs again.

“This isn’t a prank, is it?”

“Are we safe here?”

“Someone’s coming to take care of this, right?”

“Did someone call a teacher?”

“What is that thing?”

The boy stared down at the key, “Work, work,  **just work, already** .” he pressed the button again. Nothing happened.

Jack struggled in the robots grasp, “N-no, I got this. It’s -ack- it’s cool. Just gotta - _ gasp _ -!”

The tail started to lift him off the ground. Jack flailed more, trying to fight the crushing pain around his neck.

“No.” The boy rushed forward and leapt at the robot. He punched it again, again, again. Each time it echoed like a gong in a temple.

The crowd, they were still scared, worried, concerned. There were supposed to be people who took care of this - where were they? The strongest fighters in the crowd were either crashed miles away or being choked out in front of everyone.

“Let,”

**Klang.**

“Him,”

**Klang.**

“Go!”

The boy swung his arm back. He pressed the button on the Progrise key again. For a moment, nothing happened. But as the boy grit his teeth and stared down the machine, a spark of energy bounced off the key.

First it was small. Just a quick jolt of light. But soon there was more, like lightning bouncing off and around the boys hand, and in a flash of light the blank cover filled in.

The image of stylised grasshopper appeared in a stylish shining gold, and the key announced “Copy!” in an excited tone. Across the top it read, “SPARKING HOPPER ABILITY: COPY”.

The boy took the crank on his belt and pulled it to the right, setting it closed. Then, after pushing the Progrise key into the belt, it began to emit a warning siren.

“Henshin,” the boy muttered before cranking the lever back to the other side.

“ **Forcerise.** **_Sparking Hoppeeer!_ ** **Break down.** ”

The boy rushed forward, his fist flew ahead of him, and a flashing light bursted out on its impact with the machine. The boy smiled. The light focused in, surrounding the boys limbs before flashing and settling on him, being replaced by black and grey armor. The same thing happened around the rest of his body, rising up his arms and legs, around his chest, then on top of his head. The face of his mask resembled the robot he was fighting, though lacking the monkey-like augments, it was still disturbing to look at.

He pulled back his other arm back, winding it up and firing it back at the monkey-bot. There was a resounding  **_KLANG_ ** as the machine caught his fist.

“So you have fight in you yet!” the kid said, boyishly. A shining golden energy, similar to the one from before, bounced from the buckle and all across the boys armor. It filled in parts of the scrappy armor, adding a golden, metallic accent to it. Some of the armor’s pieces looked like scrap metal, strapped down to the boy with yellow straps that had just gained their color. The armor’s mask was hexagonal, with two angry looking red hexagons for eyes, and long twin antenna.

“Ta-a-argettt - aqcui-ui-ired.” The monkey-bot squeaked out. It pulled it’s tail back and chucked Jack towards the crowd.

He hit the ground hard, and rolled for a bit. Once he stopped, he did his best to push himself onto one shoulder.

“All according to plan,” he said through a fit of pained coughing.

Slowly the monkey raised its arm up with a chk-chk-chk sound. It’s arm shot forward, straight and true.

The boy easily dodged, taking the opportunity to grab the machine by the wrist. Pushing in with his fist, pulling with his arm, and kicking up with one leg, the boy flipped the robot over him. He leapt up, and kicked the robot down, pushing it further into the ground. 

“That’s more like it!” the boy cried out. This was what he’d been missing.

The crowd, who’s been backing up before, was now watching on with a sense of awe. Though it wasn’t their first time seeing a superhero fight; it was their first time seeing this one!

The bots tail shot forward and wrapped itself around the boys ankle.It pulled him back, throwing into the dirt stomach first. The bot rocked itself forward, in doing so it swung its left hand forward and down onto the boy.

It was stopped halfway when the boy punched the palm of its claw. They struggled in a stalemate for a moment before the boy pushed himself onto one knee and dealt a left hook up and into the robot’s torso. The robot was pushed to its feet from the force.

The boy, taking advantage of his position, started to push the robot forward. The machine struggled, but it couldn’t hold him back. After gaining enough speed the boy released the monkey-bot, throwing ahead of him.

“Now,” the boy said before cranking the lever of his belt, causing a crushing sound and techno standby music to start. He pulled back again once, twice, and three times!

“ _ Sparking! Utopia Finish! _ ” the belt cried out.

Sparks, energy flowed from the buckle and down the right leg of the armor. The boy took one step, then another, and so on until he broke into a long strided sprint. As he closed in on the robot, he leapt and thrust the energized leg forward,

“Haah!”

He flew, clean through the robot. And at first, it looked like he could have missed. But when it shifted, almost like it was reaching out towards the sky, it burst. The explosion short, but glorious. As if a small ball of flame suddenly came into existence, before disappearing just as quickly.

The small crowd was in awe of this new hero. Speaking of heroes -

“It’s okay!” Blossom cried, landing in the center of the crowd, “I’m back! I’m good! Where’s the… the robooot…?”

She looked around, confused.

Jack waved at her.

She motioned around the area.

Jack shrugged, pointed at the armored boy, and then made an expanding motion with his hands.

Blossom Face palmed.

“It was destroyed,” the boy announced, waltzing over to Blossom.

No one recognized him here. No one knew what the monkey-bot was. None of these people even seemed to get what he was. Which meant one thing; the boy could take a daring opportunity.

“Courtesy of me!” he placed one hand on Blossom’s shoulder and used the other to point his thumb at himself, “I’m Zero-Oooonnee…”

He fell backwards and unconscious.

“Oh my god!” Blossom gasped leaning over him.

The last thing the boy saw was Jack rushing to Blossom’s side,

“Hey, only I get to touch you!” he whined.

“Not the time for that!”

Then the world, and his helmets heads up display, faded from view. His whole vision was washed over in a cold blackness.

* * *

And then he woke up in a bed.

He shot up, wincing through the pain that shot into his side. Ow, ribs. He placed his hand lightly on where it hurt and flinched immediately. The robot had messed him up more than he expected.

Decidedly ignoring his present injuries, the boy looked around his newfound surroundings. His bed, or maybe a cot, was small and just comfortable enough to fall asleep on. He was surrounded on all sides by light blue blinds and a nightstand to each side of the cot. The room smelled clean but had the hint of a chemical scent. Light shone in through a window that had been hidden behind the blinds, and illuminated two figures that stood behind the blinds.

“Is he alright, Ms. Joy?” asked a familiar voice that came from the tallest silhouette. The boy squinted at the figure through the curtain. Tall, lean, round, a bow… Blossom? The girl from earlier?

“Please it’s just Nurse Joy, and yes, your friend should be fine so long as they get some rest.”

“Okay, thanks,” Blossom said, a hint of concern in the back of her tone.

“By the way,” the nurse said, “You didn’t tell me his name when you brought him here.” Her silhouette moved across the curtain into a crack were the boy could take a look at who was talking.

Nurse Joy, unlike the amazon of a redhead she was talking to, was an average height. And it seemed like she liked pink. Her pink hair was pulled back into two wide hoops at the back of her head, her dress was pink from he shoulders to her wrists, but was white down from her chest to almost the bottom of her skirt, where there was a line of pink; she wore white tights under pink slip ons, and the collar of her shirt was talle and white. And atop her head she wore a simple nurse’s hat with a red and grey ball where the cross should be.

She started to organize some medical supplies as she continued, “I understand that he’s probably a new student, but I’d hope you could all get out some introductions before you get to all the roughhousing.”

“You and me both,” Blossom responded.

The boy laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. There was… a lot to take in.

“So, like, you’re awake, right?” a voice whispered next to the boy. His eyes shot to his right, only to be met face-to-face with Jack.

“Gah!” the boy yelped and jumped back. The only thing keeping him from falling off the bed being his hand, which caught onto the nightstand. A burning pain came firing up his side.

“Oh, oh, oh, I’ve gotcha,” Jack scrambled to help pull him back up as Blossom threw the curtain aside,

“Jack, WHAT are you doing?”

“Uhh, my  _ best _ ?” Jack said as he set the boy down.

Blossom sighed, “Yeah, but he’s in the infirmary for a reason.”

“And that reason is that he’s a total badass!” Jack said, defending himself as Blossom pushed him off the boy.

The nurse came over, hands on her hips, “If you two are going to get any rougher, I’ll have to ask that you two step out.”

Blossom opened her mouth to respond, glanced back to Jack, then, with his arm in hand, said, “Know what? That’s probably a good idea.”

“Wait, what? Seriously!?” Jack cried as Blossom easily dragged him out of the room.

Nurse Joy and the boy watched as the two disappeared behind the door, and the room got a lot quieter.

“Well now then,” the nurse sighed, turning to the boy, “As you might have noticed, you’re actually fine.”

The boy looked down at himself, and patted his body. And when he confirmed that there weren’t any ouchies from his fight, he looked back up to her.

"You just need a little rest, dear."

"So does that mean I can… go?"

The nurse sighed and moved to sit at a desk in the corner of the room,

_ All these students are the same,  _ she thought. "Yes, I can discharge you… But we'll have to take care of some things first."

Things? What kind of things? The boy looked around the room again since the veil had been opened more. It was much… smaller than he had imagined. The walls were a light cream color, and the tiled floor was white with the occasional black square. There were some motivational posters on the opposite side of the room. They had unfamiliar animals accompanied with quotes; like a yellow mouse saying "Hang in there!" or a large, round, blue creature saying "Get some rest, you'll feel better!"

As he looked around, the room looked less and less like a hospital room. It was more like,

"Is this a school?"

"Hm?" Nurse Joy was a little surprised to hear him speak at long last. "Oh! Why, yes, it is."

She looked over him again with a hint of concern in her eye, "What's your name, dear?"

"Evalin," he hesitated, "Evalin Inagaki."

Nurse Joy nodded. She turned to the computer on the desk, typed something in, and hit enter. She turned her chair, and wheeled herself over to Evalin's bedside.

"I'll be honest with you, this is a little atypical from how we usually run things around here."

"Where  _ is _ here?" Evalin was quick to interrupt.

Joy laughed, "I'm still wondering that, too. But here, the school, is called Reaper High."

"Like, the Grim reaper?"

"Yes, he's our principal."

Evalin went a little pale and furrowed his brow.

"Oh, no, no, he's very nice, actually!" Nurse Joy threw up her hands.

"Uh-huh…"

The door to the room burst open and quickly closed as a blindingly fast yellow blur sped into the room and stopped on a dime next to Nurse Joy. She and Evalin jumped from surprise,

"Bart! How many times have I told you about running in on my patients!"

Bart, a small and lean boy with a mess of ginger hair, responded very quickly, " _ Sorry,nurse!Iknowwhatyousaid,but,Imean,howoftendoyougettomeetthestudentwhohorriblymessedupgettinghere?Whattheshock,right?It'ssocrash! _ "

"Bart,  _ slow down _ ."

" _ What,amI _ …" Bart paused, took a breath, and continued, "Hoo! Okay. Is that better?"

"Much. Now-"

"What the hell is happening!?" Evalin blurted out.

“Well as I was trying to explain-”

“Why not leave him to the welcome committee?” Bart asked.

“Well, yes, but I don’t think he’s willing to wait that long.”

“Did you tell ‘im about the principal?”

“Yes,”

“Cool, then I got the rest,” Bart turned to Evalin, clasped his hands, and pointed them at him, “So basically-”

* * *

Several hours later,

“Who knew rooftops were cold…” Evalin muttered. He looked towards the falling sun. It still had time to set, but the sky had begun to illuminate with an orange hue. The light set the long shadow of the roof’s fence across the area.

“Well, you sorta figure it out after one or two dramatic revelations.”

Evalin turned, meeting Blossom face to face. She drifted down onto the roof. That was gonna take a lot of getting used to.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

Evalin patted the spot next to him on the bench and turned back to the sun.

Blossom swung around the edge of the seat and, after smoothing out her skirt, sat next to the boy. The sunset was beautiful now. She watched as pink mixed with orange and met above the horizon.

She pulled a strand of hair behind her ear, and turned to the boy. This was the first time she got to see him in a truly calm setting. There was no killer robot, he knew where he was, and… it was peaceful. But there was something on his solemn expression. A curl downward at the end of his lip, a tension in his brow, and an uncertain stillness in his posture.

Blossom found it high time to break the ice, “How have you been adjusting?”

Evalin, with a bit of effort, turned to meet her gaze. She was proper, straight laced, polite. Her posture was relaxed, or at least she was doing her best to seem so. He noticed her shoulders were stiff, but also that her smile was comforting somehow. He felt that comfort now, whereas before he was taken aback by the roundness of her, well, everything.

It was peaceful.

“It’s been,” he paused, “slow.”

“That’s fair, honestly,” she said, “I don’t think anyone’s ever  _ just _ been okay with this change.”

No one responded.

Evalin pulled his legs onto the bench and wrapped his arms around them, “Your name is Blossom, right?”

“You already forgot!?” Was what she wanted to say, but instead she responded, “Ahem, yeah.”

“Was it… you didn’t have as hard a time getting here, did you?”

Blossom furrowed her brow, and took her time responding, “...No, I didn’t.”

Evalin pulled his legs in closer to his chest, condensing himself.

Blossom inched closer, “But, hey, it wasn’t easy for me either!”

She sighed and looked back towards the sunset, “I know how this sounds, but hear me out. I know it can be hard. You’re in a new place, with new and  _ weird _ people,” she looked at him, “And it feels like no one will ever know how you feel!”

She sighed, “...How many students do you think there are here?”

Evalin lifted his head out of the ball he’d rolled into, “Two… thousand? I don’t know.”

Blossom laughed, “That’s a good guess. The truth is, I don’t know either!” without mentioning she’d lost count somewhere around 2,327, she continued, saying, 

“But I do know that each and every one of them,” she motioned between the two of them, “Each and every one of  _ us _ , are going through the same thing.”

“And when you think about it like that,” she gave him a large, warm smile, “It’s just like going to any school!”

The sun was on the edge of the horizon, night was almost here. Evalin opened himself up and placed his feet back on the ground. He placed his hands on the bench and looked at the girl next to him.

He gaped at her for a moment, “Blossom… I’ve never been to school.”


End file.
